Of Couches And Gifts
by WingDawn98
Summary: Why did Lily sleep on the couch? How could she forget to buy James potter a gift for his birthday? Since when was Arithmancy boring for her? And why, in Merlin's name was she hiding knitting needles from Alice?


**Just a little two-shot. I'm working on the second part right now.  
Disclaimer: If I was JK Rowling, why would I be writing fanfiction? **

* * *

Lily Evans did not like to wake up early. In fact, she hated it. She even hated getting up early on her birthday, let alone somebody else's.  
So, there she was sleeping peacefully on the sofa in the common room when James Bloody Potter came bouncing into the common room.  
Lily groaned internally as she heard his footsteps, followed by his voice, not far away. It was four in the morning; didn't his parents teach him that it was rude to wake up somebody so early?

"IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! IT'S MY BIRTHDAAA- Hey Lils, what're you doing here?"

Lily muttered something incoherent.

"What was that?"

"I said, stop being so bloody loud!"

"Excuse me? You're the one who's shouting!"

"Now you are!"

"I'm shouting because you are!"

"I'm shouting because you were!"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"You don't make any sense!"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Er…I think I'm going to go now."

Footsteps. Lily sighed peacefully. Ah, silence was golden.  
Then she heard footsteps on the stairs. Why was Merlin messing with her so early in the morning?  
Lily cracked an eye open. Maybe, whoever it was wouldn't notice her.

"Lily? What are you doing here?" Bad luck, it was Alice.

"I'm sleeping, Alice, go away."

A new and all too familiar voice said, "Wow, talk about cranky."

"Shut up Sirius, can't you see she's had a rough night?"

"How do you know that?"

"She's sleeping in the common room. Obviously, something happened last night. Why else would she be sleeping here?"

"Mayb-"

"Oh, that's it!" Lily threw the blanket off her.  
Glaring at the duo before her, she said, "Thank you so much for letting me sleep peacefully. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going upstairs to get ready."  
She stood up, gathered her blanket and started climbing the stairs to the 7th year girls' dormitory.

As she climbed, Sirius whispered to Alice, "Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today."

Without looking back, Lily said, "Couch, Black. Couch."

* * *

The rest of the day was horrible. At breakfast, Peter Pettigrew spilled pumpkin juice on her.

Lily brushed off his apology, used _Scourgify_ to clean her robes and went to Charms, which was every bit as boring as she had expected it to be when Professor Flitwick had said, "Wands away," at the beginning of the class.

Next was double Arithmancy. Lily had liked Arithmancy until about 6th year. That's when it became really boring. Well, not boring so much as tedious. Normally she could bear it. But today, she was not in the mood to predict the future using numbers.  
If Lily ever found out who it was who thought it was a good idea to put the poor seventh years through such horrible torture before lunch, she was going to castrate them. Or maybe just throw them off the astronomy tower. Or feed them to a Chimaera. There were so many options, really.

Lily had to restrain herself from shouting, "Hurray!" when the bell finally rang. She stood up slowly and walked to the Great hall for lunch with her fellow Gryffindors.

But before she could start her lunch, Professor McGonagall came up to her and told Lily to follow her. Something about patrols. When they arrived, Lily saw James standing in front of the door.

Instead of telling them to come in, like Lily had expected Professor McGonagall stopped outside the door to her office and turned towards them.

"I wanted to inform you that you'll be doing the Patrols tonight as Ms. Johnson is currently in the Hospital Wing due to an explosion in the dungeons during the fifth year Potions class. That is all."  
With that, McGonagall turned around and entered her office, leaving Lily gaping after her.

"That's all?" she cried, "She could have told me that in the Great Hall!"

"Maybe she wanted to seem all official and strict because she's developed a soft spot for us and she's afraid she'll miss us when we're gone," James said, grinning at her.

"Yes, of course she is. I'm sure she's already looking forward to the day our children will arrive at Hogwarts."

"So, you admit we'll have children together?"

"No! I meant my children and your children. That's two different sets of children."

"Liar. Admit it, you meant our children. As in, yours and mine, a single set of children."

"I did not! I meant two different sets of children. One set with red hair and green eyes and one with messy black hair and boring brown eyes."

"Hey, my eyes are not boring!"

"Are you sure? I'm looking at them right now and they seem pretty dull to me…"

That was anything but the truth. For the first time, Lily noticed that James' eyes were actually very bright, with a mysterious twinkle in them. Like he knew something you don't.

"Take that back!"

"Nope."

"Do it!"

"Not a chance."

"Lily!"

"Fine, you prick. I take it back."

"Hah! I win."

"You did not win. I let you win because it's your birthday."

"And you still haven't wished me."

"Yeah."

"So?…."

"What?"

Lily was being difficult purposely and she knew it. But his birthday was not an excuse to cut him slack. If anything, it made her want to irritate him more.

"Nothing."

"You're very weird, Potter."

"So I've been told. What did you get me?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"What did you get me?"

"I'm sorry?"

Lily couldn't believe herself. She had forgotten to get him a gift! What kind of a friend was she?

"What's my gift, Evans?"

"It's…er…it's a surprise."  
But James seemed to have noticed the look of panic that flashed across her face.

"I'm kidding Evans, you didn't have to get me anything!" James assured her, smiling at her, not grinning or smirking, _smiling._

He was smiling at her and she hadn't bought him a gift. Great. Absolutely spiffingly, wonderful.

Maybe, she could….no. It was too cheesy. She didn't even know how to do it. But it was a pretty good idea. A small voice in the back of her mind told her not to completely disregard it just yet.

James voice snapped her out of her reverie, "I think we've missed lunch."

What? What lunch was he talking about? Oh, lunch! They missed lunch? How could they miss lunch?!

"By standing here and arguing like idiots, maybe?'

Oops, she hadn't meant to say the last part out loud.

"Well, we should get going. I have a free period now but I think you've got Care Of Magical Creatures next?"

Lily nodded her head.

"Well, my dear Lillian, see you later." James gave her a mock bow and she scowled.

"My name is not Lillian, Potter!" She yelled after him as he walked back in the direction of the Gryffindor tower.

"Whatever you say, Evans!" he yelled back.

"No shouting in the corridors!" A portrait of a man with a nose shaped like a hat snapped at the two of them. (Idly, Lily wondered if noses could even be hat-like)

James turned around and raised an eyebrow at the painting.

"You're shouting right now," Lily pointed out.

The man in the portrait flushed a bright red, "Well…I…er…go to class!"

"You heard the man, Lily. I'll catch you later."

James flashed her a grin, turned around and continued down the corridor.

* * *

**A/N So, what d'ya think? Leave me a review!**


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